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About

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e excellence

Excellence starts in the orchard and factory. It is a mind set and is the aim of everything we do. We provide you with a range of excellent products. These then become the wonderful dishes and products our chef and manufacturing customers make.

Processing

Factory

The Nutcracker Suite was built 2000-2001 giving the orchard the ability to process our own macadamia nuts and with the capacity to process increased production.

The processing factory has a floor area in excess of 250 m2 and contains approximately 20 different machines. It is constructed of polypanel with a concrete coved floor, filtered air and positive air pressure in the kitchen area.

It is divided into distinct areas. The macadamia nuts are brought into The In-loading Area in field bins on the forks of the tractor. A fork lift then manoeuvres the bins inside this area. The contents of a bin is tipped into a hopper on the end of an in- line conveyor. This travels up and goes through a pipe into the de husking machine. The de husking machine removes the green husk surrounding the shell and any leaf litter that has come in from the orchard. The husk and litter are shot out the bottom and are used as mulch in the orchard. The macadamia nuts in their shell (NIS) are spat out onto a grid for inspection and then roll into a bin.

Next the bin is put under a dryer to dry off the field moisture. If left wet they will go mouldy.

Later, along with other full bins, it is put into another drier where they stay for a minimum of 5 days and nights continual drying to shrink the edible part of the nut, the kernel, away from the shell so the macadamia nuts can be cracked. The moisture content of the bin is tested at intervals during this process.

The bin is removed when ready and the NIS is tipped into a hopper on the end of an in-line conveyor and the nuts travel up and through a pipe in the wall to the next area, The Cracker Bay. The NIS flows into a hopper which feeds the cracker, cracked and then both the shell and kernel roll around inside a trammel. This is a revolving sieve which sorts the material according to size and deposits it into one of 3 lanes on a conveyor.

Most of the kernel goes into the middle lane along with smaller pieces of shell. Kernel that goes into both the outside lanes is manually put into the middle lane. Then the contents of the middle lane are passed over vibrating screens to remove more of the shell.

The shell is used as garden mulch, to heat hot water, to keep us warm in our log fire and as paving material.

Next the kernel is passed through a water bath. This cleans the dust from the cracking process off the kernel, separates the remaining shell and the fully ripe kernel from the immature. The kernel is then dried.

The next area is The Inspection Bay, here the kernel is passed over a series of inspection conveyors including under a black light and faulty kernel removed. It is also ‘styled’, graded into different sizes.

The kernel is then taken through into a new area, The Critical Hygiene Area or kitchen. This area is pressurised when we work in it, similar to what you see in hospitals. The kernel is put into large foil bags, gas flushed with food grade nitrogen, a vacuum is pulled and then the bag sealed. We store these bags in a walk in chiller. All the different types of nuts we buy in are also stored in the chiller.

When a customer orders, the nuts are taken out of the chiller and the products: slices, meals, pastes, roasted kernel etc are made on various machines in the kitchen. These products are weighed, gas flushed and vacuum packed here also. All products are made fresh the day they are dispatched.

The final labelling and packing into cardboard outers happens back out in the middle bays. The parcels are then dispatched by courier direct to our customers.

Ancillary areas include: A covered carport like bay, next to The In Loading Area, which is used to line up field bins waiting their turn to come into the factory, a storage room, a front room for visitors, two drying areas. The factory has a metalled road right around it to ensure good access and work flows.

The whole process is about excellence: producing high quality macadamia nuts and innovative, high quality, added value products from all the nuts we stock.

It is also about enjoyment. There is no point in doing this if you don’t use and love our products!